AMI Issues on Facelift Cars with RMC MMI

[elan2s]

I posted this on another forum but wanted to spread the net as wide as possible. In a post on that forum a member raised a question regarding issues with an iPhone 6+ using AMI on his facelift car with the RMC MMI navigation. As I rarely use the AMI function and when I had I did not have the issues I was not much help. However having been prompted to test my own car it would seem there is a definite issue which looks to be a software glitch in the RMC MMI Software. Knowing how difficult others have found it to get Audi to recognise a software problem I am thinking if we can gather as much evidence of the issue as possible it will encourage a fix from Audi

Both my car and the original poster's cars are running MMI Software version, "RMC_EU_P14321" and our iPhones are running "IOS 8.4.1 (12H321)". with the Audi supplied cable with a yellow collar. The only difference is his phone is a 6+ and my mine a standard 6. Audi is claiming the issue is down to Apple making changes to iOS which seems unlikely unless they messed up the generic iPhone interface.

My experience to date, which I shall update as I try more scenarios and see what happens, is as follows: If you select the shuffle option within a playlist, after about 15 minutes (5 tracks?) it stops playing and crashes the MMI system necessitating either a forced reboot or as happened to me if you leave it long enough (doing the 3 fingered reboot on the motorway is probably not too wise!) the MMI reboots itself.

One of the reasons I have not experienced this previously is that I usually use an old iPod Touch (running 4.6.1) with the red collar cable for the AMI source in the car. An seperate observation on that is that there is a much higher frequency of instances than was the case with my pre-facelift A6 with the same setup where the system says there is either nothing attached or the iPod is not compatible.

I work in the IT industry and appreciate it is always a challenge for various providers to keep their software fully compatible with each other but it looks like Audi has seriously dropped the ball here, assuming Apple have not done anything to affect the interface standard implementation. Even if it is Apple's fault, the might of Audi to get a fix released is likely to be far more effective than a small number of Audi owners trying to get Apple to do something and no doubt being told it is Audi's fault.

Once I have played around a bit more I plan to contact my dealer and raise it a formal fault with the car. However it would be good to gather other peoples' experiences so that any communication to Audi (and Apple) is not simply based on 2 people having a problem

 

[NHN]

Nice to see these types of posts to help others, sounds like audi need to report this & raise a TPI for the issue, I know my guys at a dealer down south take it seriously.

Is it just when using the shuffle option?

 

[elan2s]

Bit of an update on my testing. With the iPod Touch and the Red Collar AM cable I have ascertained that on most occasions the device is only recognised by the system if you unlock the device first (even if there is no unlock code to be entered. Otherwise you get one of a number of messages about the device being unsupported or not connected. Sometimes if you the unsupported message and then leave it for a while with the message displayed it will then start to work. None of this was an issue with my pre-facelift car. I then tried the mix option and whilst it does not exhibit the initial problem of crashing after 15 minutes unless you are in a specific playlist it does not mix the tracks but simply plays them in artist alphabetical order and within the artist in album track order, it also seems to randomly put itself into Repeat mode (icon at the top) and "greys out" the option to cancel it in the Functions screen. If you select a specific playlist then it does seem to mix them. I cannot be certain about the behaviour of the mix function on my previous car as I rarely used it however the rest of the erratic behaviour is definitely new and as this is a device running an old version of iOS it is definitely not down to Apple changing their software.

Next I will try my iPhone 6 with the above cable and Apple's 30pin to Lightning adapter to see if it behaves like the iPod or like the iPhone with the AMI Lightning cable. My wife's Golf came with the Green collar AMI Lightning cable, which Audi replaced with the Yellow Collar cable so i will also try that. I will also aim to conclude all the testing before I upgrade to iOS9 (assuming it is released in the next few days) and following installation of iOS9 see if anything has changed

 

[elan2s]

Done some more experimenting and found using the Apple 30pin to Lightning adaptor makes no real difference. Reverting to the yellow Collar cable again I found that my iPhone 6 would not be recognised by MMI unless I unlocked the screen first (so now behaving like my iPod Touch). I had a thought that the problem may be that the device is trying to play tracks from the "Purchased" playlist that were not resident on the phone (they were in the Cloud), however i turned off "Purchased Music" on the phone and the problem is still there. Its seems to hang when it try to play a track that although it is there is deemed to be 0.00 in length. If you leave well alone it then starts to play the track after a minute or so. I also found this evening that if you select a specific playlist the mix function works but if you leave it trying to mix "All" then it just plays the tracks in artist name order and within a specific artist in album track order.

One last option to try will be the green collar cable from my wife's golf but I am not expecting any variation. I will then send an e-mail to the dealer detailing the fault and asking them to a) get agreement from Audi that there is a bug and b) to provide me with a software update at the earliest opportunity.

 

[elan2s]

Final(?) results of my testing of the various options with the RMC AMI installation on a facelift A6, based on the experience of the AMI system “crashing” if you tried to use the “Mix” function when playing audio via the AMI


In the course of the testing I have used both an iPhone 6 running iOS 8.4.1 and an iPod Touch 2G running iOS 4.6.2. In both cases I was using music added via iTunes. Cables used were the Red Collar 30pin AMI cable, the Yellow Collar Lightning AMI Cable and the Green Collar Lightning AMI cable. I also used the Apple 30pin to Lightning Adaptor.


For the majority of the tests I had Bluetooth Audio switched off (under Bluetooth Options in the MMI Phone section and the car is definitely less happy if you try and stream Audio from a device that is also connected to the AMI via a cable, but you do get a warning message to this effect so no surprise.


Device Recognition

On many occasions, and across the full range of devices and cables, the AMI system failed to recognise that a legitimate device was connected to the system, giving a variety of different messages from “No Device Connected” to “Incompatible device refer to dealer”. It would seem the system has an issue making a connection with the device if the device screen is locked. Unlocking the screen resolves the issue, but also sometimes simply waiting for it to try again is enough.


Mix or Shuffle Option

On more than one occasion with the “Mix” option selected the AMI system would suggest the track it was trying to play was 0.00 minute in length despite the track beg on the device. It also insisted on simply playing the tracks in Artist/Album/Album Track order rather than mixing the tracks up as expected. This was experienced across all devices and all forms of connection


My first thought as that it was trying to play a track from the “Purchased” playlist, which may not actually be on the device but in the Cloud. I turned off “Purchased Items’ on the device and the problem still persisted. After trying various options I discovered the problem only occurs if it is trying to mix all of the content on the device, rather than just a single playlist or single artist. When selecting just an artist or playlist I have not experienced the issue.


On a number of occasions the AMI system decided to go into “Repeat” mode and the option for Repeat was greyed out on the Functions selector.. Subsequently selecting Media or returning to the car and restarting it would see the Repeat mode deselected and available for selection via the Functions selector.


Bluetooth and AMI

Whilst as already discussed it is unwise to have the same device selected for Bluetooth Audio streaming whilst also connected via the AMI cable is not advised (note that having the device selected for Bluetooth phone and playing audio via AMI is OK) it is possible to have a phone connected via Bluetooth and also have another audio device connected via Bluetooth. The audio device can be added via either the Bluetooth menu within the Phone section of the MMI or via the Source menu within the Media option. You of course have to enable Bluetooth Audio in the Phone Bluetooth settings menu.. If you want to stream audio from a service such as Spotify then you should ensure the device is unplugged from the AMI port to avoid issues. Whilst I have seen reports elsewhere that Album artwork is available if streaming audio I suspect this is only the case if you have the 3G+ system and not the RMC one.


Video

None of the Lightning options available allow you to play video, they all show album artwork, however. If you want to play video then you will nee to use a device with 30 pin cable and the Red Collar AMI cable. Unless you activate Video in Motion using VCDS then the video will switch off (you retain sound) as soon as you start to move


Conclusions

1. If you get the message saying the device Is not connected, not compatible etc then make sure it is unlocked

2. Only use the mix function having selected a specific playlist or artist and not “All”

3. Make sure your playlist only includes tracks that are actually present on the device and not streamed from the cloud

4. Do not stream media from via Bluetooth from a device that is also connected via an AMI cable


Hope this helps

 

[Longstride83]

Hi

I have had these issues with my A6 65 plate. iPhone 6 on iOS 9.2. It says No device connected, drops out or it says External Aux connection with the little circle Jack symbol which is puzzling as I don't have an Aux Jack in the car ( or do I and i just don't know about it ?).

Anyway it has been into Bath Audi today and they have said it is a problem with the cars software and Apples latest release. Audi are working on a fix for the car and Apple. I have been informed they can show me a work around when i collect the car in the morning.

Hope this helps anyone and its a good sign they are dealing with the problem. I have seen the paperwork from Audi re this problem on the Audi cam from the garage. If i get any more info on this tomorrow I will post it here.

 

[Demo8dan]

@Jenko are you on the same release P14321? Did you ever update your firmware on your device? If so what version are you in currently?
Thanks


German engineering

 

[i0zjh02]

Hi

I have had these issues with my A6 65 plate. iPhone 6 on iOS 9.2. It says No device connected, drops out or it says External Aux connection with the little circle Jack symbol which is puzzling as I don't have an Aux Jack in the car ( or do I and i just don't know about it ?).

Anyway it has been into Bath Audi today and they have said it is a problem with the cars software and Apples latest release. Audi are working on a fix for the car and Apple. I have been informed they can show me a work around when i collect the car in the morning.

Hope this helps anyone and its a good sign they are dealing with the problem. I have seen the paperwork from Audi re this problem on the Audi cam from the garage. If i get any more info on this tomorrow I will post it here.

Sorry I know this is an old thread, but did you ever get this to work in your A6 65 plate ?